King, Kimmel Win Teva Mountain Games

Teva Mountain GamesIn Vail, Colo., the festival of all things outdoors includes competitions ranging from stand-up paddling to bouldering to a dog’s big air event. For runners, the weekend includes the Vail Pass Half Marathon on Saturday and the Spring Runoff 10K on Sunday. Generally an entirely uphill half marathon, this year that course was altered due to snow with some downhill added to compensate. Kim Dobson (Aurora, Colo.) has finished second at the Pikes Peak Ascent the last two years, but her win in the women’s division of the half marathon over two past U.S. Mountain Running Team members was still a big upset.

Dobson ran 1:31 to collect the $1,000 first-place prize, while Megan Lund-Lizotte (Basalt, Colo.), last year’s winner of Europe’s prestigious Sierre-Zinal trail race, was second in 1:33. Boulder legend Melody Fairchild finished third in 1:34 and Brandy Erholtz (Evergreen, Colo.) took the final money spot with a fourth-place finish. While the other money winners would all return on Sunday, Dobson did not. On the trails Sunday morning, La Sportiva Mountain Cup leader Megan Kimmel (Silverton, Colo.; pictured above) ran 49:51 to collect her own $1,000 payday. Fairchild (50:05) and Lund-Lizotte (50:39) swapped positions from Saturday and were second and third. Kelley Cullen (New Castle, Colo.) pushed Erholtz out of the money spots with a 50:53 fourth-place finish.

On the men’s side, Mario Macias (Alamosa, Colo.) stretched his Colorado-winning streak through Saturday’s half marathon, but no further. On the 13.1-mile Vail Pass course, his 1:15 beat a field that included trail star and 2:15 marathoner Max King (Bend, Ore.), road star Matt Levassiur (Alamosa, Colo.), and past Olympian Michael Aish (Arvada, Colo). Those three took spots 2-4 in 1:17, 1:18, and 1:19, respectively. Moving to the trails, an event that Macias also won last year, King (taking an early lead at right) asserted himself on the course with steep singletrack climbs and flying dirt road downhills with a 41:30 win. Former Colorado State runner Jeremy Freed (Broomfield, Colo.), last weekend’s winner of the Bolder Boulder 10K citizen’s race, was second in 41:40. Just finishing his track career at the University of Colorado, Matt Tebo (Boulder, Colo.) collected $500 with a third-place, 42:33 finish. The final money spot went to Rickey Gates (Woody Creek, Colo.), a long-time member of the U.S. Mountain Running Team, in 42:50, as Macias finished fifth.

Golden Gate Dirty Thirty Views of the Continental Divide and aspen-lined trails greeted runners at this three-year-old race, held in Colorado’s Golden Gate Canyon State Park, 30 miles northwest of Denver. The 50K course, quickly becoming a favorite among the state’s top trail runners, has nearly 8,000 feet of climbing, all between 8,000 and 9,500 feet above sea level. Course records are always in play, particularly at young events, and Joe Grant (Louisville, Colo.) ran 4:49 to trim a few minutes from Justin Ricks’ 2010 course standard. That effort should serve notice that Grant’s in good form, something that should serve him well if he makes it off of the Hardrock 100 waitlist in about a month. Nick Clark (Fort Collins, Colo.), leading the race prior to a wrong turn, finished second in 4:54. Nick Pedatella (Boulder, Colo.), Clark’s pacer for the upcoming Western States 100, was third in 5:00.

Boulder's Darcy Africa (pictured at right) ran 5:24 to beat a quality field and also set a new course record in the women’s race. Africa, a Pearl Izumi-sponsored runner, is set to race the Hardrock 100 in July. Three women who will race the Western States 100 in three weeks finished 2-3-4. Helen Cospolich (Breckenridge, Colo.), the 2009 50K winner and last year’s third-place finisher, was second in 5:33. In third and fourth, Becky Wheeler (Casper, Wyo.) and Anita Ortiz ran 5:34 and 5:40, respectively.

The North Face Endurance ChallengeThe national series rolled into Washington DC, and Matt Woods (Falls Church, Va.) rolled to a super-quick 5:59:03 50-mile finish. Just behind Woods, who was 12th at the 100K World championships last year, Jordan McDougal (Culpeper, Va.) was second in 5:59:52. McDougal of course ran at Liberty University and won last month’s TNF Endurance Challenge race in upstate New York. Michael Wardian (Washington, DC), just a week after this 11th-place finish at the Comrades Marathon, was third in 6:03:10. The women’s race was not at all close as Ragan Petrie (Arlington, Va.) ran 7:33 for a nearly 75-minute win.

Rothrock Trail Challenge 30K The La Sportiva Mountain Cup continued on perhaps the series’ most technical course. Jacob Loverich (State College, Pa.) ruled his hometown race for the second year in a row. Primarily a cyclist, Loverich’s 2:37 winning time improved on last year’s result by an impressive 9 minutes. Matt Byrne (Scranton, Pa.) repeated as runner-up, running 2:40 to drop 11 minutes from his 2010 finish. Mountain Cup regular Jason Bryant (Elkin, N.C.) was third in 2:45. Also repeating as champion, Meira Minard (State College, Pa.) was the first female in 3:11. Alison Bryant (Elkin, N.C.) and Caitlin Strahota (Wellsboro, Pa.) ran 3:29 and 3:39 for second and third, respectively.

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